Tag Archives: higher ed

A recent report published by EDUCAUSE has provided us with some insight into student views of technology. The results indicate eReaders aren’t taking off, and Facebook is far more popular than Twitter. Other interesting results from the survey included 96% of students saying they were on Facebook, with 7% of those respondents noting they used no privacy restrictions.

Want to know what the future workforce thinks of technology, how it uses search engines, social networking, and online collaborative tools? The recently released ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology gives some excellent insights into trends in college students’ technology ownership, perceptions, skills, and habits.

The 2010 report was recently released by EDUCAUSE, a non-profit organization that supports the advancement of technology in higher education. The report is based on a survey from the spring of 2010 of over 36,950 freshmen and seniors at 100 four-year institutions and students at 27 two-year institutions.

Do students need more online privacy education?

Privacy advocates say the rules regarding internet privacy and appropriate online behavior should be stressed at colleges and universities, especially among incoming freshmen, in the wake of a Rutgers University student’s suicide after a video of him having sex was posted on the web without his consent.

A lawyer for Tyler Clementi, who was a freshman at Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J., confirmed that Clementi had jumped off the George Washington Bridge last month. Clementi’s suicide came days after the student’s private sex acts were made available in an online broadcast set up by two students—Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, both 18—who were later charged with invasion of privacy, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan.

The investigation began “after Rutgers police learned that the camera had been placed in the 18-year-old student’s dorm room without permission,” according to a Sept. 28 release from Kaplan’s office. Kaplan said Wei was released after surrendering to Rutgers University Police Sept. 27. Ravi was released on $25,000 bail.

Since news of the suicide spread throughout the campus last week, Rutgers officials have pointed out that university policy includes a rule against recording someone on the campus “where there is an expectation of privacy with respect to nudity and/or sexual activity.”

Clementi’s suicide comes during the same week Rutgers launched a program called Project Civility, designed by campus officials to encourage students to consider how they treat people. Greg Trevor, a university spokesman, said in an interview with eCampus News that the campus tragedy “indicates just why this is such an important topic” and why Project Civility was needed at Rutgers, and throughout higher education.

“You can’t go anywhere on this campus without talking to people who don’t feel affected by the tragedy,” Trevor said, adding that the posting of the Clementi video has been widely admonished by the campus community. “The kind of behavior that has been alleged is not tolerated by the vast, vast majority of the people here.”

Internet privacy experts said colleges and universities should pay close attention to the invasion of privacy that apparently led to Clementi’s suicide and cultivate more respect for online privacy in orientation and other educational forums.

More Than a Paycheck

Excerpt: I am sitting in on an orientation to a vocational program at an urban community college that draws on one of the poorest populations in the city. The students in this program have had pretty sketchy educations, and they read, write and calculate at a ninth grade level or below. The program will both help them improve those skills as well as provide occupational training. If ever there was a population suited for the economic appeal, it is this one. They desperately need a leg up.

The director of the program stands at a desk and lectern at the front of a large classroom. The walls are bare, no windows, institutional cream, clean and spare. Behind her is an expansive white board; in front are 25 or so students sitting quietly in no particular order in plastic chairs at eight long tables. The students are black and Latino, a few more women than men, most appear to be in their early 20s to early 30s, with one man, who looks like he’s had a hard time of it, in his mid-40s.

“Welcome to college, “ the director is saying, “I congratulate you.” She then asks them, one by one, to talk about what motivates them and why they’re here. There is some scraping of chairs, shifting of bodies, and the still life animates.

The economic motive does loom large. One guy laughs, “I don’t want to work a crappy job all my life.” A woman in the back announces that she wants to get her GED “to get some money to take care of myself.” What is interesting, though — and I wish the president and his secretary could hear it — are all the other reasons people give for being here: to “learn more,” to be a “role model for my kids,” to get “a career to support my daughter,” to “have a better life.” The director gets to the older man. “I’m illiterate,” he says in a halting voice, “and I want to learn to read and write.”